Four decades later, police still piecing together the murder of Lorraine Zimmerman

By Amanda Engel

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    Maryland (WMAR) — Lorraine “Lori” Zimmerman was murdered more than four decades ago.

The 15-year-old Hagerstown High School student had taken the bus after school on April 6, 1984.

She went to her aunt’s house to help them move some stuff and then headed home, at around 3:15, on foot.

Zimmerman didn’t make it home and wouldn’t be seen alive again.

“She was found.. right off of Reno Monument Road in Boonsboro,” says Sgt. Chris Taylor of the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit.

Sgt. Taylor sat down with WMAR-2 News to discuss this cold case, helping to give a voice to the voiceless.

She was found in the wooded area by two people who were walking past, a little more than a week after she disappeared from Hagerstown.

Her body had been kind of covered up, and police on the scene believed that she’d been killed somewhere else, and then dumped in the rural spot.

“There was a lot of evidence, there was evidence of sexual assault, those kinds of things,” he says. “Unfortunately, back in ’84, they really weren’t doing DNA like that, so it was pretty much just a canvas of, you know, the local people that are around the area.”

Because forensics and DNA technology weren’t particularly advanced at the time, the investigators focused on whether similar crimes in Western Maryland and Pennsylvania could match a suspect to the case.

“They were trying to figure out if they were related to some of it or not, and unfortunately they were not,” says Taylor.

Police then focused on victimology, learning as much about the victim as possible.

Her parents told police at the time she didn’t have any boyfriends, though police tend to take that answer from a parent with a grain of salt.

“As we all know, sometimes parents don’t know who actually kids are dating,” says Taylor.

But when Zimmerman’s parents reached out to police, either the night of the 6th or the following day, they also said that Lori had some educational limitations, indicating she might be more vulnerable.

She’d been described as a shy, but normal student, Taylor says, she hung out with friends, a typical teenager.

If her murder had happened today, technology could’ve helped with more than just the DNA.

“There was no cell phone data, you know, there was no video surveillance,” laments Taylor.

He picked the case up about two years ago.

“We’re going to keep working as hard as we can and move forward,” he tells WMAR-2 News. “At the end of the day, it’s all about, you know, closure for the family. They deserve to know, you know what happened to their loved one, they deserve to get some sort of answers.”

If you have any details that may help Maryland State Police piece together this case, no matter how small it might seem, please call 410-996-7881.

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